1 Charlie appears The house was too crowded for so many people, it was uncomfortable.There are only two rooms in the whole house, and they have only one bed.The bed was slept by four old people, because they were too old, they were too tired and overworked all their lives, so they couldn't get out of bed at all. Grandpa Joe and Grandma Josephine slept on one side of the bed, and Grandpa George and Grandma Georgina on the other. In another room there was a mattress on the floor, on which the Bucketts and little Charlie Bucket slept. It's not bad to sleep like this in summer, but in winter, when the cold wind blows across the floor, it's really unbearable.

They couldn't afford a better house -- not even a bed -- they were so poor. Only Mr. Bucket had a job in the family, and he worked in a toothpaste factory.There he sat on a bench all day, screwing caps on tubes filled with toothpaste.But the wages of a worker who spins the cap of a toothpaste tube will never be very high. No matter how hard Mr. Bucket works, and no matter how much he moves, he still cannot earn even half of the living expenses needed to maintain such a large family. Not even enough money to buy the bare minimum of food for the whole family.As a result, they had to eat only bread and margarine for breakfast, potatoes and cabbage for lunch, and cabbage soup for dinner, and only slightly better on Sundays.So they all looked forward to Sunday, and although there was still so much to eat that day, there were two portions of food each.

Of course, the Buckets didn't die of starvation, but everyone—grandparents, grandparents, Charlie's father, Charlie's mother, and especially little Charlie—felt empty from morning till night. Yes, very uncomfortable. Charlie was the most hungry.Although his parents would often save their own lunches and dinners for him, that wasn't enough for a developing boy.He longed so badly for something else to fill his stomach with something other than cabbage and cabbage soup.And what he wants to eat most is - chocolate. On his way to school in the morning, Charlie could always see huge chunks of chocolate piled high in the shop windows.He stopped, his eyes widened, and he pressed his nose tightly against the window glass, unable to restrain his saliva.Many times during the day he saw the other children take out the cream chocolate from their pockets and chew it with relish, which, needless to say, caused him great pain.

Every year, only on his birthday, Charlie Bucket gets a morsel of chocolate.The whole family had to tighten their belts to save money for the special occasion, and Charlie always got a small bar of chocolate to eat on his own when the day came.Whenever he got that chocolate on those wonderful birthday mornings, he put it carefully in a little wooden box, and he treasured it as if it were a piece of gold.For the next few days he allowed himself to look at it, but never to touch it.Finally, when he couldn't take it any longer, he peeled off a little bit of the chocolate wrapper, revealing a little bit of chocolate, and bit down just enough—just enough for his tongue to sip the lovely sweetness slowly.The next day, he bit off a little bit more, so he only ate a little bit a day.This way Charlie could eat his sixpence birthday chocolate for more than a month.

But I haven't told you the one thing that was most intolerable to little Charlie.Little Charlie loved chocolate so much that it made him sick when he saw chocolate in the shop window, or watched other children munching creamy chocolate in front of his eyes; , and the most torturous thing you can imagine is this: In this town, to be exact, from the house where Charlie lived, there was a gigantic chocolate factory! Just think what it's like! What's more, this is not an ordinary chocolate factory.It is the largest and most famous factory in the world!This is the Wonka Factory, a factory owned by the greatest chocolate inventor and manufacturer of all time, Willy Wonka.It's a huge, fantastic factory!There is a tall iron gate at the entrance, surrounded by high walls, billowing smoke from the chimney, and strange hissing sounds from the depths of the factory.For half a mile outside the walls there was a rich aroma of melted chocolate.

Every day on the way to and from school, little Charlie passed by the factory twice.Whenever he passed the factory gate, he slowed down, walked very slowly, raised his head high, and inhaled deeply and deeply the fragrant chocolate scent around him with his nostrils. Oh, how he loved the smell! Ah, how he longed to go into this factory and see what it was like inside!